Something Eternal
by Raya1
Summary: Yep, title stolen from Utena. No idea why. Set at the very end of the Kouma War. Ceiphied+Lei Magnus and Ceiphied+Shabranigdo. No, it's not the same thing. Bon appetit.
1. Part I

Notes: Please, ignore all the sexual innuendo in this chapter, it really wasn't intentional. -_-;;. Sorry...   
- Raya

Something Eternal, Part I

-- Kouma Sensou, Citadel of the Water Dragon King --

In the skies above them and the valley below them, ryuzoku forces struggled vainly against a mazoku army. The Water Dragon King, Seiryu-o Rugradia, fought alongside her people in her dragon form, perhaps to compensate for the loss of a full dragon wing earlier. Or perhaps because now that the Barrier had sealed her off from Ceiphied, there was little else she could do to help. Either way, she was still losing. 

Three men stood together on a mountainside, a ways back from the main tide of the battle, watching. And waiting, for Rugradia to weaken. The army was under the competent direction of Gaav's General, who understood his role as a distraction perfectly. 

Further down the mountain were guards, just in case. Gaav's trusted retainers (despite what the rest of the world thought, mazoku were _very_ loyal to their masters). 

Of course, there were no guards actually with the three watchers. Some things, as the old saying went, couldn't be bought for love or money. After all, this had never been done before, so no one, not even the three watchers, knew for certain what would happen. And almost no one wanted to be the first to find out. 

Almost.

One of the three harboured doubts. Not about the outcome, but about the specifics of it. He leaned on his sword and watched the other two as well as the battle, brooding on both. He was Chaos Dragon Gaav, Mazoku Lord under Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo. 

Outwardly, the second man presented a calm that on another world might have been called Zen-like. Inwardly, though, he was as tense as a cramped muscle with anticipation. His name was Lei Magnus.

The third and last had no outward features to present, so he relied upon the second as his source of information. This was The Man Himself, Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo. 

Shabranigdo's hunger pulsed through Lei like molten rock, fast and erratic and completely out of time with Lei's own heartbeat. It was hard to think coherently through the maelstrom of the other man's obsession in order to time the summoning right, harder to do so and maintain his tranquil façade...

He gave it up. No point in wasting energy. "You watch," he told Gaav. "Tell me when."

Gaav nodded curtly, and Lei closed his eyes. Thank all the gods that they had managed to erect the Barrier without mishap, and never mind that the gods were the last people he should be thanking. Habits of speech died hard, he had noticed. Thank L-sama, then, that the gods hadn't been able to stop them. 

_::How soon now?::_ came Shabranigdo's voice in Lei's mind, sharp with eagerness and pent-up energy. The Demon King paced his confines impatiently -- more than impatiently, deeper than impatiently. Hunger, pure overwhelming lust flowed unchecked down the link between him and Lei.

_::Soon enough,::_ Lei replied. _::You've been waiting five thousand years, a few hours more won't hurt.::_

_::I want_ out_,::_ Shabranigdo insisted, _::and I want out __now_! Don't worry about Rugradia, the bitch doesn't stand a chance, especially without her precious Ceiphied. I've been trapped for aeons in this Chaos-fucked place, and she helped put me there. Let me out, and all those fucking ryuzoku bastards are dead.:: 

Lei wondered, sometimes, about whether Shabranigdo wanted "out", as he put it, in order to continue with the slaughter he was Created for, or in order to extract revenge on Ceiphied through the ryuzoku for putting the world he ruled beyond his reach. Or whether he was past all that, and wanted only to escape his prison.

_::It's only until we're certain that Rugradia will fall,::_ Lei placated him automatically. Only a formality, really, it wasn't as if Shabranigdo ever listened. _::Remember to channel through Gaav, that'll magnify the power.::_

_::I don't care, I'll scale her with my teeth if I have to, I'll gouge out her eyes with her own claws and eat them - no, feed them to one of her precious ryuzoku, she's dead as soon as I join that battle, I promise it, just GET ME OUT!::_

Gaav shook Lei's shoulder roughly. Lei opened his eyes. "She's startin' to slow down," Gaav informed him, gesturing with a jerk of the chin. "As I understand it, summoning the Lord will take some time, so maybe you'd better get started, milord."

"Thank you, Gaav." Lei laid down his ruby-topped staff - it would be of no use to him, it was meant to channel to and from the outside world. This was purely internal. Then he keyed in tiny but effective spells to shut down his senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling -- all gone. Other men might require complicated rituals, elaborate pentagrams and the like... But he was Lei Magnus, first Bearer of Shabranigdo, called the Greatest Philosopher, and for this all he needed was himself and Shabranigdo.

The Demon King remained silent, though at another time might have made some derogatory comment about Lei's ego. Not that it would have made a difference: his tension was so strong it was like a scream, like a screech of claws on stone.

Lei found the bond between himself and Shabranigdo, and, as always, marvelled. For it was made of deep, throbbing white light, forged of Ceiphied's power and untainted still, in defiance of all the dark power that had coursed through it. Every time, Lei was amazed at it's mere presence. Surely, there was nothing more unsuited for this place than that?

He reached through it to Shabranigdo's power, used that power to weave his body and his mind and the bright pulsing link even more tightly together, to form of them a living conduit for Shabranigdo to step through into this world. 

Dark, crackling black energy strained against to brilliance of the link, barring all passage. 

And, for one crucial moment, cutting Shabranigdo off from Lei. In that moment, he stood alone, devoid of the presence that had shared his mind for so long. He felt something of his being drawn into the bridge then, something indefinable and infinitely personal

_-- something essential --_

being sucked into the midst of the twisting, snapping black-and-white, a mirror of the battle outside, but where that something touched it turned the conflict golden and liquidy-smooth...

And he was being pulled along with it, and then at long last he was afraid, he who had come so far down this path without faltering because he'd thought, he'd believed he could handle anything, but no, the gold and black and white terrified him with the enormity of what it represented, and he struggled against it's pull like a small child will rebel against their parents while they are growing up.

But then it was all golden, slippery-silky-slick all the way through, and he could feel Shabranigdo again at the other end. 

_::You have to go through first,::_ the Demon King told him, _::before I can. It won't be so bad for you,::_ he continued, voice gently insistent. _::You'll die, unlike me, you'll go to Elysium, and when you want out you'll be reborn. You won't be trapped forever, not like me. Come on, we don't have much time left. If we fail here, there'll never be another chance. Not for you. Come on.::_

Shabranigdo's hunger, that burning need to _getoutnow!_ was still there behind the coaxing, soothing tone, just temporarily held in check for the sake of getting Lei past his fear so that Shabranigdo could get out. And maybe... to say thank you?

With anyone else, Lei might have said yes to that last. 

But further than that -- maybe even beyond Shabranigdo -- there was something... welcoming...

Lei relaxed and let himself be pulled through.

* * *

next part * splattered ink * e-mail Raya (wannabe_elf@hotmail.com)


	2. Part II

Notes: Alrighty then, one huge caffeine high later, here it is. I will warn you ahead of time, this is the _only_ battle scene I have written since December of '00. Seriously. So it might come off a little dry. Not a single exclamation point in sight! Have fun.  
Xaxres Backiou is Shabranigdo's Priestess (or, if you prefer, the Shabranigdo no Miko). She's also Gaav's lover. She is not a creation of Hajime Kanzaka, and belongs to no-one but herself. Visit her at "http://www.geocities.com/xaxres/".

** Something Eternal, Part Two**

Lei woke to a soft, throaty chuckle. 

He opened his eyes and sat up. He was on the floor of a spacious, marble hall. It glowed, or seemed to glow, with a muted golden light. It shone faintly around the edges of the carpet he sat on.

Lei looked up. At one end of the carpet, a grand staircase led to a pair of doors hanging high in the air.

At the other end, a blonde woman lounged sideways on a large throne. There was a box of (expensive!) chocolates on a small table, too. 

Lei stood up and bowed to Her. He'd never seen Her before, of course, but he knew who She was. "L-sama." 

The Lord of Nightmares moved Her head slightly, but Her hair hid Her eyes so that Lei couldn't tell if She was looking at him or if She was merely shifting position.

"Lei ,darling," She purred. "So nice to finally meet you in person."

"Oh, the pleasure is mine, surely," Lei responded automatically. 

"Come here," She commanded. "Chocolate?"

"Why, thank You."

"Oh," She added as She fed him the chocolate. "Do call me Mother."

Lei was feeling slightly unnerved by now, to put it lightly. But, well, if She wanted to play the game, then of course he would play. Besides, he was accounted an excellent player.

Hopefully, good enough to play with Her.

The chocolate melted on his tongue, deep and rich like the sound of Her voice. "Certainly, Mother dear."

Her omnipresent smile widened a fraction. 

"Now," She continued, "about the battle. Sit." She pointed to the floor beside the throne.

Lei sat.

She laughed again, and Her right hand drifted down to toy with Lei's hair. Lei tried not to shiver as long nails played along his neck. 

"Watch," She breathed.

A flat section of air shimmered, and an image formed there.

* * *

In the sky, the Barrier was a visible force, like a solid heat wave molded to the heavens. Within it, dragons fell bleeding to the ground, crushing elves and humans and mazoku indiscriminately. Near a downed Gold, the standard of Gaav's General dipped and fell to one small, desparate elven company. All over the field, mazoku faltered when they saw it. Rugradia screamed a war-cry and drove sharply forward --

-- to be met by Gaav, in dragon form, and Shabranigdo in Lei's body.

Shabranigdo had not forgotten about channeling his attacks through Gaav. As a horde of mazoku led by Xaxres, Shabranigdo's Priestess, engaged the dragons with Rugradia, a twisting, crackling link formed between Shabranigdo and Gaav, and a toxic-red levinbolt flew at Rugradia.

Might it be added, a very _large_ levinbolt.

Rugradia met it with a thick wall of ice. As soon as the levinbolt dissipated, the ice reformed into darts -- very _large_ darts -- that rushed at Gaav.

Flames and levinbolts and ice arrows and myriad other things flew to and fro, sometimes hitting their targets and sometimes not. Inevitably, they did hit _something_. More often, large amounts of things.

You know what they say. Friendly fire isn't.

Xaxres screamed.

Gaav couldn't.

The Chaos Dragon's three heads and multiple tentacles thrashed and quaked under the blue lightning that lashed over him.

Then he froze.

And shattered.

Still screaming, Xaxres lashed out blindly with raw Power. Those who still could, fled the area.

And then she stopped, and stared wide-eyed at Shabranigdo. Then she nodded curtly and teleported away.

Rugradia had already struck, encasing Shabranigdo's feet in ice.

But you haven't seen the Dragon Slave until you've seen it done by Shabranigdo himself. Lina Inverse, eat your heart out.

Two dragons interposed themselves between Shabranigido and Rugradia's painfullly thin shield. It helped, a little. 

With everything she had left and anything she could reach, Rugradia sealed Shabranigdo withing a block of ice. And then she died.

She didn't cry out, but her dragons did.

* * *

And from somewhere beyond the Lord of Nightmares audience chamber, someone else did, too.

"That would be Ceiphied," L-sama told Lei. "I'm afraid he's not going to take this very well."

Lei didn't say anything.

The image stilled, blurred, and flashed quickly through a series of scenes.

Dragons flocking to drive the remaining mazoku from their frozen Lord.

Xaxres, seemingly in control of herself, directing the mazoku retreat.

Gaav's soul chained to a human heart.

Rugradia in human form, naked and unconscious, bound neck to ankle in green silk and dangling upside-down in the middle of absolutely nothing. One hand was free, and clutched a sword tightly.

A globe of light, hidden by a magical labyrinth deep within the Kataart Mountains. Later, it would be known as the Clair Bible. 

And not far away, the Lei's frozen body with Shabranigdo inside. One could still see the red eyes, glowing fiercely through the ice.

Lei remembered how frantic Shabranigdo had been to escape hs prison before, and wondered what the Demon Lord was thinking now. 

And then he remembered what Shabranigdo had said to him about Elysium, and he looked up at the Lord of Nightmares, intending to ask Her what he was doing here.

"I think that's enough for one day, don't you?" She asked. "Off to bed you go. Shoo."

The image of Shabranigdo winked out and was replaced by a Portal leading to what looked like a very large bed. 

"The Unendingly Large Featherbed," She told Lei. She sounded more amused than usual. "Go on."

Lei was not amused, but he bowed extravagantly to Her. "I am yours to command, Mother dear." He kissed Her hand, and as soon as he had stepped through the Portal, it shut behind him and disappeared.

* * *


	3. Part III

**Author's Notes**: The Unendingly Large Featherbed, I forgot to mention, is Xaxres' creation. And yes, it is Unendingly Large. 

**Something Eternal, Part III**

The next day, She did not summon Lei, and when he reached the throne room, there was a large sign hung upon the doors proclaiming, "I'm BUSY". Somehow, it managed to promise unmentionable atrocities to any interlopers without saying any more than that.

Left to his own devices, Lei wandered.

The Sea of Chaos changed appearance unpredictably according to L-sama's whims. Right now, it was a labyrinthine marble palace, filled with spiralling staircases and twisting pillars and all sorts of other architectural impossibilities. The whole thing was lit dimly by a seemingly sourceless golden light. After all, it was the Sea of Chaos.

He didn't encounter anyone else during his explorations. Not a soul.

Lei stopped to admire the view from a sharply arched window and wondered about what the Lord of Nightmares' days were like. Did She ever feel lonely? Was that why She had created the Four Worlds? What kind of insane intelligence had Her aeons of near-absolute solitude produced?

Did She even know what loneliness was?

He wondered if Rugradia's cage of ice would have been better. He wondered if he might not go just as mad here as Shabranigdo had.

By the third day of his explorations, he was rather irritated. He didn't appreciate being made to wait like a minor functionary or a temple novice, not even by the Lord of Nightmares. He wanted to know why he was here, and not, say, frozen under the Kataart range.

He came to a junction, and turned left.

Behind him, a door clicked shut.

_Signs of civilization!_ Lei thought dryly. He turned around.

The other branch of this corridor was long and slightly. At the end of it stood a pair of tall doors, the only doors in the length of the hall.

_How melodramatic._ Lei trailed his fingers along the lace-like stonework. The doors were made of dark, unpolished wood. There was a large, iron knocker set into it.

Lei knocked. When no reply came, he tried the handle, and found it unlocked.

Inside was a gargantuan black-stone cave. Long streamers of translucent crimson silk hung from the shrouded ceiling down to the floor. Globes of dark brandy-coloured light floated throughout the hall, like topaz and amber set afire.

Standing in the darkness was a man, tawny-skinned and beautiful.

_Ceiphied_, Lei realized.

"You must be Lei Magnus," Ceiphied enunciated, distaste dripping from his voice. "Get out."

Lei blinked, then remembered what L-sama had said. I'm afraid Ceiphied isn't going to take this very well.

Understandable, Lei supposed.

"If you wish," he replied.

"I do wish," Ceiphied snapped. He punctuated his words with a wall of fire that erupted at Lei.

Lei left. He remembered to shut the door behind him.


	4. Part IV

**Something Eternal, Part IV**

The next morning, Lei awoke to find an envelope floating above his head. He had to spend several minutes chasing it around the Unendingly Large Featherbed before he caught it.

Out of sorts now, he adjusted his nightshirt and sat down to open the envelope.

_Lei darling_, the enclosed note read, _I'd like to chat with you about a matter of small import. If you'd be so kind? Love, Mother._

'A matter of small import.' Did the mystery of why Lei was here fall under the category of 'a matter of small import'?

The "busy" sign was still hanging, which made Lei slightly nervous, but he couldn't very well disregard a summons from the Lord of Nightmares.

"Lei, darling," She greeted him. "So glad you could make it."

The doors shut behind him. 

"Mother dear," he replied. "I'll always have time for you."

She chuckled. "I'm flattered. Come here, darling." She gestured for him to sit at Her feet again. 

"So," Lei said, wondering if incest was a fetish of Hers, "what would You like to... chat with me about?"

"A small matter, as I said," She replied. "I have a message that needs delivering."

Lei raised an eyebrow. This was not what he'd been expecting. To put it lightly. "To where, Mother?" 

"Why, to Ceiphied, of course. Where else?" She handed him an envelope.

Lei considered asking Her why She couldn't have sent like She had his summons, but didn't.


	5. Part V

**Something Eternal, Part V**

A short walk later -- he preferred walking to teleportation whenever possible -- Lei was again knocking on Ceiphied's doors.

This time, Ceiphied's reply was immediate and succinctly worded: "FUCK OFF!" 

The term 'spoilt brat' came to mind. 

"Message from Mother," Lei called back, and opened the door.

Ceiphied glared at him. "Why couldn't She have sent it the usual way?"

"I didn't ask," Lei replied. "The message," he continued, holding up the envelope.

"Bring it here."

_Brat._

Lei laid the envelope on the floor. "Come and get it," he told Ceiphied, and left. 

The door slammed shut behind him.


	6. Part VI

**Author's Notes**: And we're finally getting to the point, sort of. We will be getting more to the point next chapter, and I really have no idea what'll happen after that.

**Something Eternal, Part VII**

Several days later, Lei repeated the 'spoilt brat' observation to the Lord of Nightmares over tea. It wasn't really the foremost issue on his mind, only the most innocuous. A week or so of solitude spent gnawing on the questions attached to his present situation hadn't been enough time to come up with definite answers.

L-sama only shrugged and sipped at Her tea. "Ceiphied tends to take certain things rather harshly. Things like, say, the slaughter of a clan of dragons and the subsequent death of his favourite regent. I don't think your presence is helping, especially since Shabranigdo -- I really should have named him something else, that's quite a mouthful -- views most of his retainers as expendable."

Lei helped himself to a pastry. "I... didn't quite catch that," he said carefully.

"I'm so glad you've started wearing something other than those dreadful robes," She murmured blandly. "They went out of style aeons ago."

"That might have less to do with my fashion sense than the fact that I haven't been able to find a single set of since I arrived," Lei replied dryly. "I don't suppose You had anything to do with that, Mother dear?"

She gave him Her all-purpose inscrutable smile and ate a strawberry. "More tea?"

I could almost think that we're following entirely different conversations.

Almost. 

"Why am I here instead of Shabranigdo, Mother?"

"Well, he was complaining about the surroundings here." She laughed softly. "Just as easy to keep him there as here. You want to be frozen?"

"Truth to tell, I was expecting to be dead. My soul's been sundered from my body, after all."

"I think I might make an exception for you. It will be... interesting." She stood up and leaned over the table to trace circles on his chest. "Besides, you'll do well enough as a substitute for dear Shabby. Ask Ceiphied, if you're in doubt." Poke. 

She favoured him with another inscrutable smile. "Ta," She said, and disappeared.


	7. Part VII

**Something Eternal, Part VII**

On the whole, the Sea of Chaos was a very boring place. Bizarre, yes, but after a while it wore thin. The Lord of Nightmares still had the 'busy' sign posted on Her doors, the Unendingly Large Featherbed wasn't much use without someone else in it, and the rest of the Sea was little more than an exercise in the Surrealist school of interior design. (1)

_Perhaps it's becoming a habit_, Lei thought as he walked down the hall leading to Ceiphied's cavern. 

The door stood slightly open. Lei eased it further open and stuck his head in warily, ready to retract it before it got removed.

Ceiphied was nowhere in sight. Lei entered and waited for acknowledgement. When none came, he cast a Light spell and set about looking for Ceiphied. 

He found a passageway in the far left corner. It was large -- dragon-sized, now that Lei thought about it -- and smooth-floored, curving and twisting gently. It ended in a rounded wooden door, made for humans. This door, too, was unlocked.

The first thing Lei saw was the Sea. Clear and calm, stretching on endlessly under a sunless golden sky.

Ceiphied sat at one end of the cave-room -- no cave ever had floors that smooth -- with neatly folded, shimmering feathered wings. They were, Lei noted, the same shade as the dark-gold globes back in the first cavern. The exact same shade, Lei would wager. Dragons were vain, sometimes, and so were gods.

Ceiphied was contemplating the image of a stern-faced, blue-haired dragon woman carrying an unsheathed sword. The same sword, Lei realized, that she had been clutching when L-sama had shown her to him. 

"Rugradia?" he asked anyway, for the sake of saying something.

"Yes," Ceiphied replied simply. He banished the illusion and looked up at Lei. "Mother's note said that I should be polite to you. I think that not going for your head is would be enough, myself, but I suppose I'm biased. Sit."

Lei took a seat on the floor, opposite Ceiphied. "She was beautiful," he offered, meaning Rugradia. 

"Yes. She was."

That effectively killed the conversation.

* * *

1) "_... the Sea was little more than an exercise in the Surrealist school of interior design._"  
Ohtori Academy, anyone? ... Actually, that strikes me as a good idea. The movie version, I think. ^_^.


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